US Senate Condemns National History Goals [more…]
April 14, 2010
US Senate Condemns National History Goals
By Marda Kirkwood
The National Standards for American History, a part of Goals 2000, were released to wide criticism in the spring of 1995. Lauded by their authors (from the National History Standards Projects at UCLA) as the standard for what American children should learn about the history of the United States, the standards were resoundingly condemned. In a non-binding resolution sponsored by Senator Slade Gorton (R-WA), the US Senate voted 99 to 1 to reject the goals. (The lone dissenter did not believe the resolution was strong enough.)
Former Senator Gorton´s original resolution would have denied federal funds and barred national boards (established by Goals 2000) from approving the standards. However, the Senate severely weakened the resolution before final passage.
In a letter to constituents, then Senator Gorton wrote, “After two years of work and the expenditure of two million taxpayer dollars, the project´s authors came up with a set of “guidelines” I can only describe a anti–American ideology masquerading as history. … puts America´s democratic system on the same moral footing as the totalitarian dictatorship of the late, unlamented Soviet Union.”(Emphasis in the original)
Lynne Cheney, former chairwoman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, addressed the Goals 2000 history standards in an article for The Wall Street Journal, “The End of History”, on Oct. 20, 1994. She wrote, “The general drift of the document becomes apparent when one realizes that not a single one of the 31 standards mentions the Constitution.”
What do various respected historians and educators say? Here´s a sampling: “a travesty, a caricature” and an effort to teach children to “feel negative about their own country” (Albert Shanker, President–American Federation of Teachers); “riddled with propaganda” (John Leo, “U.S. News and World Report”); anti–western … hostile to the main threads of American history” (Chester Finn, The Hudson Institute)
Various groups that pushed their own agendas and political correctness ruled the day. The authors conducted a PR campaign encouraging teachers to write their congressmen to request enforcement of the standards. Cheney continued in her 1994 article, “The standards for world history are also soon to be made public. By all accounts, the sessions leading to their development were even more contentious than those that produced U.S. standards.”
Predictably, the education establishment ignored the Senate´s non–binding condemnation of the history standards. They proceeded as they had planned and have distributed the standards. They are now in the hands of administrators, teachers, and curriculum committees in your local schools. Take a good, hard look at the textbooks your children are bringing home. You may find that the history is not how you remember it.
Tags: History of Ed "Reform"
US Senate Condemns National History Goals
By Marda Kirkwood
The National Standards for American History, a part of Goals 2000, were released to wide criticism in the spring of 1995. Lauded by their authors (from the National History Standards Projects at UCLA) as the standard for what American children should learn about the history of the United States, the standards were resoundingly condemned. In a non-binding resolution sponsored by Senator Slade Gorton (R-WA), the US Senate voted 99 to 1 to reject the goals. (The lone dissenter did not believe the resolution was strong enough.)
Former Senator Gorton´s original resolution would have denied federal funds and barred national boards (established by Goals 2000) from approving the standards. However, the Senate severely weakened the resolution before final passage.
In a letter to constituents, then Senator Gorton wrote, “After two years of work and the expenditure of two million taxpayer dollars, the project´s authors came up with a set of “guidelines” I can only describe a anti–American ideology masquerading as history. … puts America´s democratic system on the same moral footing as the totalitarian dictatorship of the late, unlamented Soviet Union.”(Emphasis in the original)
Lynne Cheney, former chairwoman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, addressed the Goals 2000 history standards in an article for The Wall Street Journal, “The End of History”, on Oct. 20, 1994. She wrote, “The general drift of the document becomes apparent when one realizes that not a single one of the 31 standards mentions the Constitution.”
What do various respected historians and educators say? Here´s a sampling: “a travesty, a caricature” and an effort to teach children to “feel negative about their own country” (Albert Shanker, President–American Federation of Teachers); “riddled with propaganda” (John Leo, “U.S. News and World Report”); anti–western … hostile to the main threads of American history” (Chester Finn, The Hudson Institute)
Various groups that pushed their own agendas and political correctness ruled the day. The authors conducted a PR campaign encouraging teachers to write their congressmen to request enforcement of the standards. Cheney continued in her 1994 article, “The standards for world history are also soon to be made public. By all accounts, the sessions leading to their development were even more contentious than those that produced U.S. standards.”
Predictably, the education establishment ignored the Senate´s non–binding condemnation of the history standards. They proceeded as they had planned and have distributed the standards. They are now in the hands of administrators, teachers, and curriculum committees in your local schools. Take a good, hard look at the textbooks your children are bringing home. You may find that the history is not how you remember it.
Tags: History of Ed "Reform"